Hyundai Santa Cruz ute set for Australia: new sub Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger ute to bring back the glory days of the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore utes

For the first time since the demise of the locally-made Holden VF Commodore Ute in 2017, smaller sub-Ford Ranger-sized utes are returning to Australia starting with the Hyundai Santa Cruz.

CarsGuide understands that Hyundai previewed a so-called “Tucson Ute” at a recent dealer event, as part of a slew of upcoming new models earmarked for our market over the next few years.

Timings (and possibly names) are not yet clear, the Santa Cruz – a medium-sized unibody four-door five-seater ute based on the Tucson mid-sized SUV and offered in either front-wheel-drive (2WD) or all-wheel drive configurations – is expected to launch in Australia around 2026 after the second-generation model breaks cover.

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Hyundai Australia General Manager of Corporate Affairs Bill Thomas, declined to confirm whether a ute smaller than the highly-anticipated Ioniq T7 and T10 all-electric utes would come to Australia any time soon, except to say that nothing is ever off the table.

“We look at every model that might be suitable,” he said.

It’s been previously reported that Hyundai Australia has expressed interest in the Santa Cruz, which currently is only manufactured in Alabama in the United States, even importing a pair of evaluation vehicles into Australia during 2022.

The Santa Cruz is based on the Tucson SUV.

At the time, severely limited production capacity (the same factory also built nearly 210,000 Tucsons alone last year), coupled with a lack of right-hand drive development, appear to have scuppered any plans for the existing ute.

This time, however, it appears that Hyundai Australia may have bought into the next-gen model’s engineering program right from the beginning, which would certainly then help pave the way for an Australian debut from 2026.

The Santa Cruz is one of a trio of different-sized car-based dual-cab utes that currently serve Americans – the others being the smaller Ford Maverick and larger Honda Ridgeline.

The Santa Cruz uses 4-cylinder petrol engines.

Based on the existing Tucson and sharing most of its front body structure, powertrains, suspension and interior architecture save for the open load bed out back, the Hyundai has sold steadily if not spectacularly in North America since debuting in 2021.

Although it trailed the Maverick in the US by a big margin last year – 36,675 versus 94,058 units – the Ford is considered to be a class smaller, costs significantly less and offers a compelling petrol-electric hybrid version while the Santa Cruz does not.

The gap has widening further in the first quarter of this year – 3362 versus 39,061 sales – the Hyundai is in a transition phase production-wise due to the recently-announced facelift coming on line, bringing more-aggressive front-end styling and other updates to help differentiate it a bit more from the Tucson.

The Ford Maverick is a massive US sales hit.

Little is known about the next-gen Santa Cruz, other than it will adopt squarer styling as per the latest Santa Fe three-row SUV and its even-larger Palisade II spin-off, allowing for more three-box proportions to match the Maverick’s.

More importantly, the change in silhouette should usefully stretch the length of the next Hyundai's load bed, which is currently actually shorter than the Ford’s, giving the latter another sales advantage.

Hyundai has gambled big to bring the Santa Cruz to market in the first place – it was the subject of the brand’s biggest-ever research and development program in the decade leading up to being released three years ago according to one company spokesperson, so the brand is not about to give up.

The current Santa Cruz's load bed is quite short.

The Maverick’s unprecedented US success – demand is up 82 per cent this year – should give Hyundai impetus to go strong with the next-gen Santa Cruz in Australia, since it shows there is clearly a massive market for more-compact and affordable dual-cab utes.

This is an especially important distinction to make for Hyundai, given the Maverick won’t make it to Australia any time soon due to Ford’s fear that it might ravage Ranger sales here (don’t forget, Melbourne has been the global home market for the Ranger and its Everest and Volkswagen Amarok offshoots for two decades), as well as the fact that there is currently no RHD availability.

How long this situation will last is anybody’s guess, but for now, it seems Hyundai is in the hot seat to capitalise on one of this decade’s biggest automotive success stories, for a hungry market that doesn’t yet have any competition.

The MY25 Santa Cruz adopts more-macho styling.

Do you agree? Would the Santa Cruz succeed in Australia? Let us know in the comments below.